25 Times An Online DNA Test Unearthed Dark Family Secrets

Ancestry tests can provide answers for those seeking more information on their predecessors. After all, it can be fun to learn more about the family tree. The gamble, however, is that what comes to light may either reinforce what you already knew or it may blow your life apart because the knowledge unveiled is more than you bargained for.

#1

Image source: Derkastan77-2, Getty Images/unsplash

This past year, my family found out that we (47,49,51 and 53) HAVE AN OLDER SISTER!!!

(All story we have since found out)

Turns out my mother (died back in 2008) was r**ed by her highschool boyfriend in the late 50’s. When she found out she was pregnant, she told him. He denied it was his, called her a w**re, then his family sent him to live on the east coast to get away “from it”.

My 18yo mom traveled by bus to another state, stayed with an aunt for a year… had the baby there, gave it up for adoption, then travelled back home.

Her entire life we had no idea. My grandparents (her mom n dad) and my father knew. They kept the secret.

My sister took a DNA test, this lady contacted her that they had a dna match through my mother.

That was last July.

Since then my my sister and I have met her, and we absolutely love her… she looks exactly like our mom, even has similar mannerisms, it’s crazy lol

My dad absolutely adores her and last month he met her for the very first time. They talk on the phone every day now. He is 90 years old and was really deteriorating. Having her come into our lives has completely rejuvenated him. I haven’t seen him this happy in years. And btw, she’s wonderful.

Which is awesome….. because my brother is an a-hole… so I traded him for a new older sister.

#2

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I was brought up to believe that my two aunties were sisters who lived together after both their husbands died in world war 2,

Only one was a blood relative and neither had been married to a man in their lives.

#3

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DNA ancestry website told us that my staunch Polish Catholic family were Jewish until (approx) 1939.

Not sure if it classes as a family secret, but it sure surprised the s**t out of some of us.

#4

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I did one on Ancestry about ten years ago. I found a “1st cousin” who I didn’t recognise. I asked my mum about it, and a few hours later she called me and explained I was donor conceived (s***m donor). So my dad who raised me isn’t my biological father.

It hasn’t changed my relationship with my parents at all. I didn’t feel any different than I did before I knew (if anything, it made me feel a bit more special). I reached out to the half-sibling (who had appeared as a 1st cousin as the rough % of shared DNA is the same for both) but he never replied. I expect I have other half-siblings out there, so it will be interesting to see if any pop up on Ancestry in the future!

#5

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That my great grandparents on my dads side were straight up kidnapped from a reservation in ND when they were little kids. Turns out my great grandparents on mom’s side were also yoiked from their families by the church? Idk, we never found out who stole them as kids, but we did find my extended family. The Sioux are pretty based too, apparently I’m Sioux. Didn’t find this out until like 2018 or so, just thought I was dark white dude lmao.

#6

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My uncle by marriage is 70 years old and due to 23andMe he found out he has 3 brothers and 2 sisters that live 10 miles down the road from him. He also found out his dad wasn’t his biological father. Quite the gut punch to find out at his age.

#7

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Found out my mom had a twin she never knew about. Turns out my grandparents gave her up for adoption because they couldn’t afford two babies during the Depression. We connected with my aunt last year and she’s literally my mom’s mirror image.

#8

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My dead drop kick uncle had a secret child that not even his ex wife knew about. Found out last year when my younger cousin did a DNA test and she reached out. She was adopted as a baby and always wanted a big family. Wish granted i guess cause my family is huge and she’s invited to all the holidays now!

#9

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Back in the late 1950s or early 1960s, my great-aunt moved away to another state with her husband and had a few children with him there. While still living there, she wrote home to say that her 2-year-old son had passed away from meningitis or something along those lines. She eventually moved back with her surviving children and carried on with her life. Decades later, long after she was dead, I was contacted by Cece Moore, an investigative genealogist who was working a cold case, trying to identify a toddler whose body had been pulled from a reservoir by a local fisherman back in the 60s. Turned out to be my aunt’s child. His body had been wrapped in a quilt and weighted down so it wouldn’t surface. Unlikely that he died from meningitis.

#10

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Mine wasn’t a secret exactly. Just a youthful one night stand that had more consequences than my pop’s realized. My half-brother’s mom didn’t math correctly so nobody knew.

My new brother is cool as s**t though. It would have been cool if he’d been my big brother growing up but better late than never.

#11

Image source: Status-Escape8389, guesswatt20/reddit

I was the family secret, my Dad isn’t my ‘Dad’.

The man who raised me from birth, who I consider my Dad, bought me an Ancestry DNA test for my birthday last year, as my Mums family has always been quite secretive as to where they’re from. He had done one himself as his father had walked out.

When my results came in, a random man came up as a paternal DNA at 50% and my Dad was obviously not a match. Turns out my Mother had an affair 30 years earlier with a Pilot whilst she was a flight attendant. Cliche as it comes.

#12

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A family member had [unalived] someone in the 70’s and left behind some DNA. They were able to link him to the crime a few years ago because someone somewhere in the extended family had done one of those tests. He pled guilty and died in prison.

#13

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A (now ex so there’s that) friend found out from a DNA test she had no Maori blood. Being in NZ this is significant and making that part of her identity- she was gutted. Got the test as a birthday present- from her now ex- girlfriend. At least she knows abit of teo reo now. (Maori language skills).

#14

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Grew up thinking I was japanese and found out my mom was korean. she was born in japan, I have met aunts, uncles and cousins from japan they all have japanese names and 0% japanese dna. my grandma was born in 35 and I dont know where she was born. me and her were very close and she didnt say if she knew she was korean. we DID always have kimchi in the house though.

#15

Image source: BiffyMcGillicutty1, WBTV

I don’t know if it’s exactly a family secret, but the cold case of missing 9 year old Asha Degree. Almost exactly 25 years ago, she seems to have packed her backpack, left her house at 3:30 am, walked along the road where she was spotted by a couple of people, then disappeared. Very few clues were found, other than when a construction crew dug up her backpack about 1.5 years after her disappearance. The backpack was sealed in two garbage bags and buried over 35 miles away from her house.

The case was recently reopened and a reinvestigation was started. Remember her backpack that was dug up over 23 years ago? They went back and tested the items inside, leading them to a familial DNA link to a completely random family in the area. They served a search warrant in September 2024 and just executed another search warrant last week. They found a car that resembles one that witnesses claimed Asha was pushed into during the reinvestigation. Authorities seem to think two sisters, who were 15 and 16 at the time, may have caused Asha’s death, possibly accidentally, and their father helped them cover up. Text messages were uncovered in the search that are troubling at the very least.

A case that was completely cold now seems to be red hot because a cousin uploaded their DNA to a public web site. And one of the sisters supposedly drunkenly admitted to k***ing Asha at a party just a few years after it happened. Probably a little awkward at the reunion, but cheers to the hope of justice being served for Asha and her family.

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#16

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My mom’s grandfather or great-grandfather invented a new identity for himself between New York and Phoenix. DNA found relatives on the east coast that carry the same male line and they have one last name. Relatives in the west have a totally different name.

#17

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My grandfather isn’t my grandfather. His neighbor is. And my mom’s childhood best friend is her half sister. They are born within a month of each other and have the same first name. The family pretty much agrees that grandma was salty about something when she named her daughter the same as the neighbor.

#18

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My great grandparent was adopted and mixed race. We always thought we were just a bunch of white people. Turns out we are a little Asian too.

#19

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My mom is related to a bootlegger, a horse thief, and someone named Dorkus.

#20

Image source: justmedoubleb, Netflix

What about the hundreds of kids that found out they had the same father…most born through IVF…the doctor was using his sperms instead of the bio dad’s, destroying theirs. I might have some details wrong, but…

EDIT: Adding this fact from google…

As of May 11, 2022, Cline has been confirmed as the biological father of 94 doctor-conceived offspring.

And it all came out when one woman submitting DNA to find a possible lost sister. Her DNA matched with numerous half siblings…and research took over. At least the doctor is in prison…I think. 94 kids! Yikes!

#21

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My grandfather matched with his first grandson that was adopted when my aunt was 15.

He was born in Nevada, adopted in Arizona, and was raised in Utah where my aunt happened to live in the same zip code for the last 25 years.

He met his 32 cousins, his grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents, and entire extended family.

He lives within a 20 min drive of 90% of us.

I just went to their baby shower and it’s been amazing to see that sometimes you have an entire family of well adjusted loving people waiting to meet and know you.

I have a lot of friends who met their adoptive parents and it didn’t turn out so great.

#22

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My mom found out that her dad wasn’t her bio dad and it explained A LOT. Funny that my grandmother was SUPER religious, (no cards allowed in her house!) but when her non-bio dad worked for an older man, they lived just down the street from each other. My mom did a dna test that popped up several half siblings and her older sister remembered that last name from when they were kids and living down the street from them and that’s how they made the connection. She reached out to her new found half siblings and they confirmed their dad was her non-bio-dad’s boss and that bosses son was her bio dad.

The dark side is her non-bio dad always treated her so badly, yelled at her at 1AM for not doing dishes when her siblings didn’t have to do dishes at all or get yelled at. When she was 15, he kicked her until she was under the kitchen table and later peed blood; she married my dad shortly after turning 16 to get away from it and they were married for 25 years having me and my four siblings and, despite the trauma and stunted emotional maturity, cared for and loved us deeply even if they weren’t perfect.

By the time she found out her bio dad had passed, her non-bio dad (whom she knew as dad) had passed, and her mom (my grandmother) had dementia and was in no state to talk about any of this.

But it makes me angry that my grandmother never stuck up for my mom, that she didn’t protect her from my non-bio grandfather. It’s obvious to us now that my mom, the youngest, wasn’t supposed to be and they knew the whole time. It definitely fundamentally alters how I think about my grandfather and grandmother now. I mean, even me, I always felt like my cousins got tons of lap time and loving from my grandfather yet one time I criticized or did something to them (who knows what) and he stabbed me in the neck with a plastic fork but fortunately it broke. He made me apologize to light fixtures for leaving them on (nobody else had to) and it was my grandmother who carried me on trips and to baseball games, never him.

My mom is very close with her oldest sister and they know all of this and that is a great relationship. Her other two half siblings deny she was ever a***ed and would never accept their super religious mom would have an illegitimate child.

Ironically, in some of her final dementia-ridden days, my grandmother would exclaim “Why would [mom’s non bio dad] leave me?!?” And my aunts/uncles,cousins would be like “what is she talking about? He’s been dead 10 years.” While me, my mom, my siblings, and my aunt (her oldest sister) knew exactly what she was talking about but my mom never said a word. It’s my mom’s news to tell and she chooses to say nothing and that’s her choice which we all respect.

She now has a very good relationship with the half siblings she met through 23&me and sits on her porch most nights talking to them and that’s super good, makes my heart happy.

#23

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Not as scandalous as some of the stories here, but was a big shock to us.

My brother did 23andme 3 years ago and randomly got a match to an aunt we had no idea existed. My brother asked who her parents were, but she was adopted in a very closed adoption. 23andme narrowed down that she was a paternal aunt.

My dad’s dad was a POS wife beater who abandoned them when my dad was little. My grandma is dead. This surprise aunt was born the same year as my uncle so we knew an affair must have occured. My dad took a 23andme test and verified she is his half sister. But he also got in touch with another family member he lost touch with. A cousin on his dad’s side.

The cousin tells my dad that his father is dead and when my dad tells the cousin he has a secret haf sister the cousin says her uncle would neverrrrrrr cheat on his wife and he was an amazing guy. Yeah, right. He brutalized my grandma.

My new aunt got ahold of her adoption paperwork and her bio mom remained anonymous, but paperwork said she was very young and that the father of her child was a married man wth a pregnant wife, an alcoholic, violent, and she was scared of him. So she chose to give my aunt up for adoption and never tell the father for her safety. My aunt is still looking for her bio mother.

#24

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On my mothers Scottish side, the story goes that we have Spanish from survivors of the Armada in our family.

Well, I took a DNA test and it’s actually North African. Now we have no idea how someone from North Africa got to Scotland. And they have to have been in the order of my great great grandparents, because the features are still very strong (we look nothing like you’d expect someone from Scotland would look like).

We’ll probably never know the real story.

#25

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My paternal grandmother’s family.

The story my dad has been fed his whole life is that his parents divorced when he was young and his dad took the two boys before family courts were really a thing. He knew he had a half sister who would call the house occasionally and he refused to talk to her.

Turns out my grandmother more than likely was put into Witness Protection and no one heard from her since 1970. I met several of my second cousins through Ancestry, though I still haven’t found my dad’s living half sister even though I’d love to connect.

Aunt Diane if you’re out there, I’m ready to talk.